Since Sean Payton became head coach in 2023, the Denver Broncos have posted a 10-3 October record, one they hope to continue to build upon as they travel to meet the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
When someone is wished a "Happy Birthday,' a common response might be, "Oh, it's just another day."
For the Denver Broncos, however, seeing the calendar flip from September to October will not elicit the response, "Oh, it's just another month."
But what makes simply going from the 273rd day of the year to the 274th so special?
Well, since Sean Payton arrived as Denver's head coach for the 2023 season, the Broncos have posted a 10-3 record in 13 games played in October.
In fact, since dropping consecutive October contests in a five-day span from Oct. 8-12, 2023, (31-21 to the New York Jets and 19-8 to the Kansas City Chiefs), Denver has gone 9-1 in their last nine October games, with the lone loss being a 23-16 setback against the Los Angeles Chargers on Oct. 13, 2024, which also gives them six straight wins in the 10th month.
The run of successful October outcomes has included six wins at home and road triumphs in such exotic locales as Chicago, IL (31-28 over the Bears in 2023), New Orleans, LA (33-10 over the Saints in 2024) and London, England (13-11 over the Jets in 2025).
To be honest, the strong October performances have been required as the Broncos under Payton have been less-than-stellar in September. His regime began in 2023 with three consecutive losses to the Las Vegas Raiders, Washington Commandeers and Miami Dolphins - the famous game in which Miami hung 70 points on the Blue-and-Orange - before Payton recorded his first Denver "W" against the Bears.
The next two Septembers featured 2-2 records, with wins over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (26-7) and Jets (10-9) in 2024, and the Tennessee Titans (20-12) and Cincinnati Bengals (28-3) in 2025, giving Denver an overall 4-7 September mark since Payton arrived.
It looked like September business as usual when Denver no-showed in a 31-10 season-opening loss to the Kansas City. Encouragingly, though, that has been followed by a pair of wins at home over 2025 playoff teams: 20-13 in Week Two against the Jacksonville Jaguars and Sunday's thrilling 30-26 defeat over the Super Bowl-favorite Los Angeles Rams.
So, for the first time under Payton, whose overall winning percentage in October as a head coach with more than 50 games under his belt is an NFL record of .761, the Broncos enter one of their favorite months with a winning record.
As reported by Aric DiLalla of denverbroncos.com on Wednesday, Payton has taken tangible measures to ensure that the past October success has a chance of continuing over the next four weeks.
"As we called everyone up [in the huddle, the message] was, 'October was good for us a year ago, and that's because you guys made it a priority during the week," the writer reported Payton saying at his weekly press conference. "It was kind of back to that. We're early in this race. We have to be finding these areas that don't become another mistake [in] Week 5 or Week 6."
They'll also have to maintain their elevated level of play as the new month also brings a continuation of Denver's brutal six-week schedule to start the season. After Sunday's trip to San Francisco, which they'll enter as 2.5-point underdogs, they travel to SoFi Stadium to meet the Chargers, who are admittedly struggling at 0-3 but no AFC West contest can ever be overlooked, before welcoming the reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks to Denver for a Thursday night game on Oct. 15. Then, their first apparent breather of season comes on Oct. 25 when they travel to meet the Arizona Cardinals, who enter Week Four with a 1-2 record with their win against the winless Chargers.
